A hard disk drive (HDD) is a form of storage device that may be used in a computer system to store information. A hard disk drive is a form of non-volatile memory that uses a spinning magnetic disk, or platter, which is commonly driven at speeds of 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm, and onto which information is written using a moving read/write head, whereby information, in the form of bits, is stored by changing the magnetization of a thin ferromagnetic layer on top of the rotating disk using the movable head. In addition to one or more hard disk drives, the physical components that make up an individual computer system may include a plurality of processing cores for performing calculations related to the execution of code stored in memory, and for displaying graphical information to a human user of the system, a form of random access memory (RAM) that is generally cleared by a power cycle or other reboot operation (e.g., it is a “volatile” memory), communication devices, such as a network adapter having the mechanical, electrical and signaling circuitry needed to connect the individual computer system to a network of other computer systems, a data bus for connecting the components of the system, and a plurality of retention and structural elements used to house and protect the components, among others.
While alternative storage device technologies exist to hard disk drives (HDDs), such as solid state drives (SSDs) that employ arrays of semiconductor-based transistors to build memory blocks, large-scale storage systems employ HDDs due to their lower cost per unit storage space. As such, an array of spinning HDDs in a storage system may be a source of vibration, wherein vibration can damage components used to retain the HDDs, and generate noise. Furthermore, an external source of vibration from an array of spinning HDDs, or another source, which may include one or more system fans, may have an adverse effect on the performance of an HDD, and result in degradation and premature failure of an HDD.
There exist isolation systems to dampen vibration transmission from HDDs to other structures in a computer system, wherein an HDD and carrier assembly is suspended such that contact with the surrounding computer structure is through a spring and damper assembly. Securing an HDD in an isolation system requires tight fixation between the HDD casing and a carrier assembly to prevent vibration propagation from the casing to the carrier, since the isolation system only serves to inhibit propagation of vibration from the combined HDD and carrier assembly to the rest of the computer structure. Fixation between the HDD casing and the carrier assembly, in some embodiments of isolation systems, is achieved using screws. For large scale storage systems, which may require continuous replacement of a plurality of hard disk drives, the time to insert and extract a hard disk drive from an isolation system that uses fixation screws may be prohibitively long and cumbersome. As such, there is a need for a more efficient method of retaining a hard disk drive such that it may be inserted and extracted from a carrier assembly quickly, and held in position such that vibration between the hard disk drive casing and carrier assembly is reduced.